Development, partners, author profiles

Addressing the problem

A Missouri March of Dimes Grant was awarded to a collaborative composed
of University of Missouri Extension, Southern Missouri Regional Genetic Service
and the Missouri Teratogen Information Service (1999) to develop a comprehensive
curriculum in response to a need identified by Missouri teachers. Additional
support was provided by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

The curriculum development process included a survey completed by Missouri
teachers, focus group sessions to identify components needed in the curriculum,
and field-testing a draft of the curriculum. The response supported the premise
for the project — the need for an organized curriculum focusing on birth defects
prevention, with current research-based information, formatted to meet educational
standards. Teachers were indeed covering the subject, but an organized curriculum
of this nature was not available.

As part of this grant project, curriculum implementation workshops were
held in nine Missouri locations, with participants including teachers, county
Department of Health nurses, case managers and health educators, Parents As
Teachers educators, human services staff, and University of Missouri Extension
specialists. The curriculum was then published by University of Missouri Extension
Publications (2001), and a second series of eight workshops was held with
professionals from county offices of the Department of Health as the target
audience.

More than 500 individuals attended the workshops in 2000-2001, with 76
percent of the school districts in Missouri and 74 percent of the local health
department offices receiving the curriculum. Presentations and/or pre-conferences
have been made at Parents As Teachers National Conference, the National Extension
Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, the American Association of Family
and Consumer Sciences, and the Missouri Educators of Family and Consumer Sciences.

A 2005 March of Dimes Community Grant awarded to the Missouri Department
of Health and Senior Services funded an evaluation of the use and effectiveness
of the curriculum from 2000 to 2005. An evaluation survey was distributed
to 600 recipients, by mail and electronic posting, with a 35 percent response
return. The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis, University of Missouri
Columbia, compiled the responses. The curriculum was reviewed, updated and
reprinted by University of Missouri Extension Publications (2nd edition, 2005).
Additional school intervention projects have been conducted in cooperation
with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Missouri Western
University School of Nursing, and University of Missouri School of Nursing,
Community and Public Health.

The 2011, 3rd edition was funded by the March of Dimes and the Missouri
Department of Health and Senior Services through sponsoring grants from the
Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant, DHHS/HRSA, and Maternal and
Child Health Federal Consolidated Program. Collaboration with the Missouri
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Family and Consumer Sciences
has been consistent throughout the development and implementation of the
Ounce
of Prevention curriculum resource.